Old Louisville preserves late 1800s architecture

Lisa Elia More Content Now

Thursday

Apr 30, 2020 at 7:49 AMMay 4, 2020 at 11:35 AM

The Victorian Age really never ended in Old Louisville — at least not when it comes to its amazing architecture.

While most American cities demolished many Gilded Age mansions in the name of “urban renewal” in the 1960s, Louisville managed to put a stop to the wrecking ball before a lot of these grand old homes were destroyed.

Today, Old Louisville stretches 48 square blocks with nearly 1,400 structures that were mainly built from 1880 to 1905, and it is the largest neighborhood of Victorian homes in the country.

Old Louisville, just south of the city, was one of its first suburbs, and the most prosperous families — racetrack royalty, bourbon barons, titans of tobacco — built lavish mansions there.

“Old Louisville was built from those three vices — drinking, smoking and gambling,” said David Domine, who has written books about the neighborhood and runs Louisville Historic Tours.

These barons of industry spared no expense in making their homes elegant showplaces by decking them out with gargoyles and serpents, turrets and towers, bay windows and gabled roofs, and hand-carved doors and stained-glass windows.

Domine said many of the Old Louisville Victorian homes are made of limestone or brick, not wood like the familiar “Painted Ladies” built elsewhere in the country. Homes provide different examples of Victorian architecture, such as Italianate, Richardsonian Romanesque (named after Boston architect Henry Hobson Richardson), Queen Anne, Chateauesque and Beaux-Arts.

He said each house has some not-be-missed details. Some are adorned with rounded arches; others have Moorish windows. Some have fanciful floral swags and wreaths while others have whimsical ornamentals, such as salamanders or tobacco leaves that were grown in Kentucky.

The Southern Exposition put Old Louisville on the map. The world’s fair type of event was one of Louisville’s most historic, taking place for 100 days starting in 1883. The marquee event was Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulbs, which illuminated the exhibition hall at night. It was the first time locals had seen electricity.

After the expo ended, the neighborhoods of St. James and Belgravia courts sprang up in its place, starting in 1889.

One home that visitors can tour in that neighborhood is the Conrad-Caldwell house, a Richardsonian Romanesque built in the mid-1890s. It’s known for its whimsical faces and fleur-de-lis carved into the facade.

Another eye-catching landmark is the Filson Historical Society headquarters, the most lavish house in Old Louisville and the city’s best example of Beaux-Arts architecture, featuring sculptural floral designs and acanthus leaves.

Old Louisville’s heyday was short-lived. The expense and upkeep of the mansions, the Great Depression, two wars and the flight to the suburbs led the neighborhood to fall into disrepair in the first half of the 20th century.

However, today the area is on the upswing as the preservation movement has saved many buildings, and the neighborhood has seen a steady stream of families, professionals and college students moving in to refurbish homes and start businesses.